The team had played in the American USL League Two from 2009 to 2019 (except 2015) and in League1 British Columbia from 2022 to 2023. The team's colours are white, black, and gold.
History
Highlanders logo 2009–2017
The Highlanders were founded in 2008 when the United Soccer League awarded the city of Victoria, British Columbia the rights to a semi-professional Premier Development League franchise.[1] One of the major contributing factors was the successful 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, of which Victoria was a host city, which led local businessman Alex Campbell Jr. to create the Highlanders.[1] The initial goal of the club was to eventually move to the fully professional USL First Division.[2][3] Their initial home field was the Bear Mountain Stadium in Langford, British Columbia, achieving great attendance in their inaugural season.[1]
The team debuted in the 2009 season, after spending a year assembling a coaching staff under head coach Colin Miller and recruiting a roster.[1] They played their first match on May 1, 2009 against the Spokane Spiders, winning by a score of 1–0, with the first goal in franchise history being scored by Patrick Gawrys.[4] They finished their inaugural season placing 5th in the Northwest Division with a 6–4–6 record.[1] Over the course of their inaugural season, they averaged crowds of 1,734, including a crowd of 2,412 for their home opener.[citation needed] After the season, head coach Colin Miller announced his resignation to be closer to his family in Abbotsford.[5] The club also announced an affiliation with USL First Division club Austin Aztex in a farm club role, for player development as well as exhibition matches.[6]Ian Bridge was named Miller's replacement for the 2010 season.[7]
In 2011, they qualified for the playoffs for the first time after placing second in their division,[8] but lost to the Fresno Fuego in the first round by a score of 3–1.[7] In 2012, the Juan de Fuca Plate, which was awarded to the best British Columbia PDL team based on matches between the clubs (originally the Highlanders, Vancouver Whitecaps FC U-23, and Fraser Valley Mariners and later TSS FC Rovers).[9] The Highlanders finished as runners-up for the original title, finishing second to the Whitecaps due to a tiebreaker.[9]
In 2013, they won their first Northwest Division title, as well as the Western Conference Championship.[10] In the playoffs, they defeated Ventura County Fusion and Portland Timbers U23s in the first two rounds, before being defeated by the Thunder Bay Chill in the semi-finals.[10] In 2014, the club played exhibition matches with Scottish club Rangers F.C. and NASL club FC Edmonton.[11][12][13] They finished second in their division in 2014, but lost in the play-in round of the playoffs 7-2 to the Vancouver Whitecaps FC U-23,[14] but they did capture their first Juan de Fuca plate title after defeating the Whitecaps U23 in both regular season matches.[9]
In January 2015, team owner Alex Campbell Jr. folded the team due to not finding financial partners amid mounting financial losses, as the club had never posted a profit since 2009.[15] However, on April 1, Marvin Diercks and Dave Dew, long time Victoria soccer advocates, purchased the franchise and branding rights to the Highlanders from previous owner Alex Campbell reviving the team and announcing that they would join the Pacific Coast Soccer League for the 2015 season.[16][17] After a good run in the regular season, the Highlanders finished third overall and clinched a berth into the Sheila Anderson Memorial Challenge Cup play-offs. In the playoffs, the Highlanders advanced to the finals, where they lost in a penalty kick shootout to Khalsa Sporting Club.[18]
After a successful season in the PCSL, the club started making plans to return to the USL PDL.[18] During the USL Winter meetings in December 2015, Diercks and Dew purchased the PDL franchise rights from the Puget Sound Gunners FC and rejoined the PDL on January 29, 2016.[19] Also in 2016, the Highlanders forged a partnership with English club Sheffield Wednesday.[20]
In 2018, the Highlanders ownership group expanded to include Brett Large, Moreno Stefani, Grant Olson, Mark deFrias, and Ryan Wilson, in addition to Diercks and Dew.[21] The club also revamped their logo at the time.[22]
In December 2019, the Highlanders announced they would return to the PCSL, as they awaited the formation of League1 British Columbia for 2021.[23][24] They joined the Vancouver Island Soccer League for the 2020-21 winter season, after the 2020 PCSL season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[25]
In 2021, it was announced that the Highlanders would be joining the new League1 British Columbia in both the men's and women's division, with the men's Highlanders organization merging with the women's club Vancouver Island FC, which played in the Women's Premier Soccer League.[26][27] Their debut match in the league occurred on May 23 with the women's match against the Whitecaps FC Academy, serving as the first ever match for the league.[28][29]
In 2023, they won the League1 BC regular season title, qualifying the team for the 2024 Canadian Championship,[30] before being defeated by the Whitecaps FC Academy in the playoff final.[31] In April 2024, the club withdrew from the league due to rising costs, in addition withdrawing their spot in the 2024 Canadian Championship, but would continue to operate a team in the Vancouver Island Soccer League.[32]
Club culture
With the purchase of season tickets, one also gets a membership in the Victoria Highlanders Supporters Board that administers the fan's 30% ownership in the club. The Supporters Board is a democratic registered non-profit society with limited liability, and all money or other assets belonging to the Supporters Board belong to all members equally. The structure is to facilitate a formalized way to provide feedback, voice opinions, help guide the club's direction, and expand the club's membership base.[33] Day-to-day club operations are handled by senior club management.[34][35]
The Highlanders when first announced were to begin playing in a 4500-seat stadium at the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre, however, after this project did not proceed the city of Langford, British Columbia built its own stadium, Bear Mountain Stadium, which the Highlanders committed to using.[38] Capacity concerns regarding dressing rooms, field space, mid-field seating capacity, and training time conflicts for the four Highlander teams with the Victoria Rebels Football Club of the Canadian Junior Football League and other tenants resulted in the move to Royal Athletic Park in Victoria in the middle of the 2011 season.[39][40] At the Royal Athletic Park, the team was a secondary tenant to the Victoria HarbourCats baseball team, consequently having their home matches scheduled around those.[41] In 2016, they moved to Centennial Stadium in Victoria.[41]
This list of notable former and current players who went on to play professional soccer after playing for the team in the Premier Development League, or those who previously played professionally before joining the team.
The Highlanders also established reserve teams. In 2009, their U20 reserves only played exhibition matches,[47] before joining the Men's Premier Division of the Pacific Coast Soccer League in 2010.[48] In March 2011, the Highlanders announced an affiliation with a Nanaimo-Ladysmith based group to be named the Mid-Isle Highlanders. The Mid-Isle Highlanders play in the Pacific Coast Soccer League (PCSL) Reserves Division (a U-21 division) as a development squad. The Mid Isle side was older than the Highlanders U20 Reserves (who were U-17 and U-18) playing in the PCSL Premier Division, but younger than the U-23 PDL roster.[49] They also have younger youth teams as part of their Victoria Highlanders Futures program.
In 2010, the Highlanders added a women's team, when they adopted the Victoria Stars FC of the PCSL, who ran into financial difficulties and renamed them as the Victoria Highlanders Women.[50] In 2011, the team joined the USL W-League.[51][52] After two seasons, the team returned to the PCSL for 2013, with the team rebranding as the Peninsula Co-op Women's Soccer after their major sponsor, although the Highlanders continued to be the operators of the team despite the name rebrand.[53] The women's team folded after the 2014 season and was not part of the 2015 revival with the new ownership group.[16]
Swangard Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Central Park in Burnaby, British Columbia. Primarily used for soccer, rugby, football, and athletics, the stadium also used to be home to the Simon Fraser Clan football team and the Vancouver Whitecaps while they were in the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) and various US-based Division 2 leagues. It opened on April 26, 1969, and has a capacity of 5,288.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC U-23, formerly known as Whitecaps FC Reserves, was a Canadian soccer team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Although founded in 2005 as part of the development system for the Vancouver Whitecaps USL First Division franchise, beginning in 2011 they became part of the development system for Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps FC. The team played in the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.
Starlight Stadium is a 6,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in Langford, British Columbia, Canada. It is used by Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League for soccer, by Rugby Canada for various events, and by the Westshore Rebels junior Canadian football team. In an international context, its most notable usage is as the site of the Canada Women's Sevens, an event in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series for national rugby sevens teams. The stadium also hosted the BC Bears of the Canadian Rugby Championship from 2009 to 2013, and the Victoria Highlanders soccer team from 2009 to 2011.
Victoria Highlanders FC is a Canadian women's soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia.
The 2013 Vancouver Whitecaps FC season was the Whitecaps' third season in Major League Soccer, the top tier of soccer in the United States and Canada.
The 2013 USL Premier Development League season was the 19th season of the PDL. The regular season began on May 4 with 3 matches and ended on July 21 with 9 matches. The regular season was followed by a postseason tournament of conference winners to determine the league's champion. Four teams were added to the league and 13 teams dropped, bringing the total number of teams in the league to 64 for 2013.
The Juan de Fuca Plate is an annual trophy awarded by supporters to the best semi-professional team in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The trophy is currently awarded to the League1 British Columbia club who accrues the greatest number of combined points across the men's and women's divisions. From 2012 through 2019, it was awarded to the winner of the season series of matches played between British Columbian teams in the Premier Development League.
Joshua David Heard is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for and captains Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League.
TSS FC Rovers, commonly referred to as TSS Rovers, are a Canadian soccer team based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada that play in League1 British Columbia, the third tier of soccer in Canada. Established for the 2017 PDL season by general manager Will Cromack and head coach Colin Elmes, the Rovers are the under-23 team of the TSS Academy, one of the largest soccer schools in British Columbia's Lower Mainland.
Callum Montgomery is a Canadian soccer player who plays for Canadian Premier League side Cavalry FC.
Nolan Wirth is a Canadian former professional soccer player.
Sean Young is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Pacific FC in the Canadian Premier League.
League1 British Columbia (L1BC) is a semi-professional men's and women's soccer league in British Columbia, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the BC Soccer Association as a Division III Pro-Am league in the Canadian soccer league system.
Vancouver Island FC was a Canadian women's soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia that played in Women's Premier Soccer League. In 2021, the team merged with the male Victoria Highlanders to serve as the club's women's club in League1 British Columbia, where they will operate as the Victoria Highlanders Women.
Nautsaʼmawt Football Club was a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia that played in League1 British Columbia.
The 2022 League1 British Columbia season was the inaugural season of play for League1 British Columbia, a pro-am league in the Canadian soccer league system. The league is the highest level of soccer based in the Canadian province of British Columbia except for fully professional clubs in the Canadian Premier League and Major League Soccer. Seven clubs participated in the 2022 season in both the men's and women's divisions.
Harbourside Football Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Nanaimo, British Columbia that plays in League1 British Columbia.
The 2023 League1 British Columbia season was the second season of play for League1 British Columbia, a pro-am league in the Canadian soccer league system. Eight clubs participated in both the men's and women's divisions.
Eric James Lajeunesse is a Canadian soccer player.
The 2024 League1 British Columbia season is the third season of play for League1 British Columbia, a pro-am league in the Canadian soccer league system. Seven clubs will participate in both the men's and women's divisions.
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